Let me take you back to a time not so long ago, before the SEC and the Big 12 did their thing and became the talk of college football.

Commissioner John Swofford stated adamantly this offseason that the ACC would not admit Notre Dame as a partial member. Not now, not ever.

Now fast forward to Wednesday morning:

Two desperate, wayward souls standing on the altar in a marriage of convenience, both using each other in every sense imaginable.

Notre Dame wants to be relevant again. The ACC is in danger of being lapped by the BCS power conferences.

“What was best 20 years ago,” Swofford said, “isn’t necessarily best in today’s world.”

And what’s best in today’s world for Notre Dame is choosing the easiest path back to respectability.

The Irish had to make a decision about their football future. The landscape had changed; the power had shifted squarely to the SEC and Big 12, and the once storied program that is 83-72 versus BCS teams since Lou Holtz retired after the 1996 season, made its move.

There were three options available for Notre Dame: the Big Ten, the Big 12 and the ACC. The Big Ten wanted full membership; the Big 12 and ACC would take partial membership.

Notre Dame values its football independence, so the choice then became play in the second-toughest league in the game, or play against a conference one step ahead of the floundering Big East.

“Moving to the ACC is the best course of action for us,” Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick said.

How could it not be?

Don’t believe the public relations spin of joining an elite academic conference as a high priority. If academics were No. 1, the Big Ten was the place to be.

Don’t believe the public relations spin of joining a competitive conference that can help the Irish build on its century of tradition. If competition was the goal, the Big 12 was the place to be.

This, more than anything, is Notre Dame trying to return to the college football elite by traveling the road of least resistance. By moving to the ACC and playing five games annually against the league, it all but assures Notre Dame’s longstanding rivalries with Michigan, Michigan State and Purdue will be altered or maybe eliminated.

A television industry source says the three Big Ten rivalries will be “changed in some sort of rotation, depending on agreeability.”

Some of those games have extended contracts, and would have to be amended.

And if the games against Big Ten rivals can’t be worked out, then what?

Guarantee nonconference games, that’s what. More cupcakes to help the Irish get better quicker.

Do you blame Notre Dame? How could the Irish say no? Here’s what the ACC was offering:

— Five games against ACC teams; a rotation of games against every ACC school over the course of 2½ seasons.

— A partnership with the ACC’s seven non-BCS bowl games. The Irish are now part of the ACC’s bowl rotation—with a proviso that allows them to be picked ahead of another ACC team if ND is ranked higher or is within one win of a team.

— The right to keep all revenue from the multimillion-dollar NBC contract, which is in the process of being renegotiated. The Irish now are in a position of greater strength in those negotiations as a member of the ACC. The Irish will also receive an equal share of television revenue for Olympic sports.

— The ability to schedule opponents and win championships in Olympic sports (preventing the Irish from spending millions on travel as an independent or in the new Big East).

— A full member in ACC men's basketball, the premier conference in the game.

And what did the ACC get? The Notre Dame name—and the perception that the ACC really is a strong, viable entity in the new college football world.

“We really think this is a perfect fit for Notre Dame,” Swarbrick said.